Clean up after the dog?

So… I’ve recently noticed that people are leaving dog poop lying next to sidewalks and paths. Said poop is enclosed in a little green plastic bag. Apparently, it’s become a thing for walkers of dogs to bag the poop, but then leave it on the ground to pick up at the end of their walk.

So… I walk by it, seeing that some neighbor has intentionally left poop in my path.

And of course, sometimes they forget to pick it up. But all the ones who admit to this behavior say that’s their intention. And I’m inclined to believe it. I mean… Why else bother to bag it? Still, there are sometimes bags that were obviously forgotten left lying around, growing nastier over time.

Anyway, and i wrong to think it’s inconsiderate to leave bags of poop lying around on the public way?

=====

Oh, and the funny thing is that apparently the little green bags are biodegradable plastic. I have no idea why they bother. If they pick it up, it’s going to a landfill, where, who cares? And if they leave it, it would rot a lot faster unbagged, and be less likely to choke wildlife in the meantime. But again, the people who do this seen to think it’s a mitigating factor that they are paying extra for biodegradable plastic.

If you can go through the trouble of bagging up your dog’s poop, you can go through the trouble of taking it with you to the nearest trash can.

I’m even OK if I’ve got the trash can out at the curb and you put your bagged dog poop there. It’s going to the same place, I don’t get charged any more, you don’t have to lug it back to wherever home is or to some public trash can, … it’s win-win-win.

2 Likes

No, you are not wrong. It is inconsiderate.

Also, what Ted_Hoffman said…both items.

I don’t think this is people walking around their house, i think this is people going on longish walks. And there aren’t a lot of public trash cans in my suburb. And we don’t have public trash service, so while there are people who pay to have their trash picked up, there aren’t typically trash cans on the curb.

Honestly, I’d rather they use a stick to hide the poop in the woods (some areas are lawns, but others are wooded parks) than leave that bright green flag that says, “hey, there’s poop right here!”

The law requires dog walkers to pick up the poop. I don’t think leaving it in a bag counts. But i guess they do.

I bag my dog’s poop and toss it in a public garbage can (like at the park) or carry it home. Sometimes I think about throwing it away in a random garbage can if they’re out at the curb for trash pick up, but some people get pissed if you throw anything away in their cans so I don’t.

Sounds like they’re littering instead.

2 Likes

Well, i empty my cat’s litter box into mine, so some extra poop is no big deal. And i doubt you’d add enough volume for the trash company to care. But you would have to break into my garage to get to my trash can, so that would be kinda creepy.

In our city, trash bins are owned by the city, and if they’re out and you can throw something in them without trespassing, it’s perfectly legal to do so.

But you would think people are dumping dead bodies in them from the hundreds of replies the neighborhood discussion forum gets every few months when this topic is broached. There is nothing, literally nothing, a person can do with dog poo that will make people happy. Don’t throw it in MY bin, my trash shouldn’t smell! Don’t throw it in YOUR own bin and leave the bin at the curb, it smells when I walk by it.

I live by a park. We get a lot of poop around here left unbagged, and I see the occasional bagged poo on the ground, but I just assume it was accidentally or “accidentally” dropped there. Whatever I guess.

1 Like

RNP (random number poster) has a link to an 87-page study on this, called “humblebagging.”

The problem is worse than mine, if you are seeing tons of dog poop. I’m seeing poop now and then. Although, honestly, i probably wouldn’t notice it if it weren’t for the bags, so long as it wasn’t actually on the sidewalk.

Yeah, assume there are no trashcans these people can use until they get home, and that no one (except maybe their spouse) will complain when they drop the bag in their own trash can. We only have public trash cans in the center of town. There’s no public trash pickup, and about half the town hauls their trash to the town dump, and the other half contracts with one of a handful of private trash services. But those people leave their trashcans on their driveway for a couple of hours, and then bring them back inside. No one leaves trashcans conveniently by the sidewalk on a regular basis.

I get the same thing in my neighborhood, and pretty much 100% of the people walking dogs live in the neighborhood. I suspect it is mostly someone walking their dog, intending to pick it up on the way back, but they end up forgetting about it after the switch to the other side of the street to social distance from another walker. I assume they pick it up the next time they walk past it, since they don’t seem to be accumulating everywhere.

I am also annoyed by people leaving their poop bags around. It would be better if they didn’t bag it at all. It’s rude and inconsiderate.

Even before I got my pup, I didn’t care if people threw poop bags in my garbage can when it was at the curb. However, I do agree some people get bent out of shape about this so I don’t do it myself.

Another annoying thing: sometimes people leave them in the yard waste bags/cans at the curb. That’s awful, as it’s not biodegradable and the sanitation crew will not pick them up as a result if they see them in there. That means I need to deal with your dog poop when you put them in my yard bags. Don’t do that!

Someone put an old cooler out down the street for trash pickup. Some dog owner decided to leave a poop bag on top of it, and the trend has continued. Now there’s at least 10 poop bags sitting on top, and no way the sanitation guys will deal with that. Whoever lives there has a lot of dog poop to deal with.

This is a major pet peeve (swidt?) Of mine. Here, i will be running on a trail in the woods, and see those bags. Invariably they are a bright color making the stand out even more drives me crazy.

Yeah, I kinda blame the folks who sell bags that they advertise as “biodegradable”. I’ve tested putting “biodegradable plastic” in my compost pile. It isn’t. I mean, maybe it breaks into pieces faster than ordinary plastic, or maybe you can break it down in some super-hot commercial composting place. But in my backyard is just looks like plastic pieces sitting mixed in with rotting plant matter.

im out in the sticks. Across the street from me is a corn field. I watch the farmer spray 1000’s of gallons of poop on this field every year. Yet my neighbor walks his dog past this field every day, his dog poops in the road, he picks it up and takes it home.

why doesnt he just throw it into the field?!

or even better, why doesnt his dog poop in their 3 acre yard? why do I have to watch this 150 lb Sheppard crap in front of my house every day while my dog goes nuts barking. I dont have many neighbors, and they ones I have still drive me nuts.

my next house will have zero view of other people.

and the OP is right for this to piss him off. dont leave bags of crap laying around. honest mistake by most, prob, but there are still bags of crap laying around!

1 Like

Why don’t people carry a large bag for the small bags?

1 Like

Some do. My brother has a clip on his dog’s leash that hold a bag of poop. My sister has a bag on the pooper-scooper that holds the poop.

Dog poop is more acidic than cow based on their diets, which is why farmers don’t use it.

Why doesn’t your neighbor just take a dump in the field while he’s at it?

cow is fine.

Its when they get the chicken and pig poop out there that is really starts to stink.

1 Like